Page 62 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

Star-Crossed Lovers I 51

and Juliet is a fine film poem," Time admitted, lamenting: "Unfor-
tunately, it is not Shakespeare's poem!" Castellani's film is difficult
to judge. As cinema, it's terrific; as an adaptation of a great play, it's
terrible.
Unfortunate as well was the acting. Shentall was a secretarial stu-
dent spotted by the director in a London pub, picked for her "pale-
sweet skin and honey-blonde hair," but she never rose to the role's
demands. Shentall appeared right for the part (if one believes Juliet
should be a blonde) but delivered her lines in an uninspired manner.
Young Harvey, already an accomplished stage and screen actor,
unwisely played down Romeo's passion. He concentrated instead on a
soft, poetic performance that muted his striking similarity to James
Dean and probably hurt the film's possible impact in America as well.

Fortune's Fool
Romeo and Juliet
BHE/Verona Productions, 1968; Franco Zeffirelli

Why not retain what was best about Castellani's experiment—young
performers, authentic locations, and vivid color—while keeping such
elements in proper perspective, rather than letting them overwhelm
the text? That was Franco Zeffirelli's thought when, after complet-
ing The Taming of the Shrew, he resolved to try Romeo and Juliet
next. Zeffirelli wisely determined that his would be a Shakespearean
film about young love, retold for the "love children," drawing on
the generation-gap mentality that developed during the mid-sixties
revolutionary fervor over civil rights and the Vietnam War.
This was the age of the British Invasion in music and fashion, so
an English cast was now fully acceptable to American audiences.
Zeffirelli understood his target audience. "The teenagers of the play
should be a lot like kids today," he insisted. "They don't want to
get involved in their parents' hates and wars. Romeo was a sensi-
tive, naive pacifist, and Juliet strong, wise for a fourteen-year old.
That is why I chose inexperienced actors. I don't expect a perfor-
mance from Olivia [Hussey] or Lenny [Whiting]. I want them to use
their own experience to illustrate Shakespeare's characters."
The director claimed to have chosen Hussey for her "classical
beauty—mesmerizing eyes (and) coarse strength." What he most